Mistaken
by housexbonesobsession
Summary: When a seemingly perfect high school student is murdered in her own home and there are virtually no suspects, how will Castle & Beckett solve the case? Summaries are hard.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I'm starting a multi-chaptered fic- my first one for Castle! Here's chapter 1... just a little intro :) enjoy!**

Coconuts, pineapple, milk...and pancake batter. Just what Castle needed for this morning's breakfast.

"Dad, what are you making?" asked Alexis, who once again woke up to her dad making one of his concoctions.

"Pina colada pancakes! Want one?"

"Um, I'll pass...thanks though."

"Come on! You like pina coladas, you like pancakes.."

"Not everything goes together sweetheart," said Martha as she came down the stairs.

"Morning, gram."

"So I have a question," said Martha. "Do you put syrup on those, or...?"

"Rum! Brilliant! I think we have some in the-"

Just then, Castle's phone rang.

"There. Leave your tropical pancakes and go solve a murder."

Castle picked up the phone.

"Castle's House of Pancakes...Castle speaking."


	2. Chapter 2

"No Castle...those don't sound delicious. Alexis is a smart girl. I wouldn't have tried them either."

Beckett and Castle approached the crime scene and walked over to Lani, who was crouched next to their newest victim.

"What've we got here?" Beckett asked.

"Her name is Laura Gallardo. Dad came home from work and found his daughter laying dead in the kitchen."

The girl was young, probably still in high school. Castle's mind automatically drifted to Alexis. He couldn't imagine the grief the parents must be feeling right now.

"Cause of death?"

Lani turned the body over to show the detective and her partner the reason this girl lay lifeless on the floor.

"Single gunshot wound to the back of the head. No bruising or sign of struggle. I don't think she knew it was coming. She didn't have a chance to fight back."

Beckett nodded.

"So she was targeted."

"Time of death?"

"I won't know until I get her back to the lab."

Esposito approached the three who surrounded the body.

"No sign of forced entry anywhere in the house. The victim knew her killer."

Castle's glance drifted past the scene.

"Or the killer came in that open back door."

Beckett, Lani, and Esposito all turned to look.

"Was that open when you got here?" Beckett asked.

"Yup," Lani replied.

Beckett frowned.

"So our killer came in the back door completely unannounced and shot the girl in the back of the head before she even knew he was here."

Castle looked down at the body.

"Why would someone want this girl dead?"

Beckett looked up at him.

"It's our job to find out."

"I'm so sorry for your loss, Mr. and Mrs. Gallardo," Beckett said as she took a seat next to Castle on the family's couch.

"Who would do this to my Laura?" Mr. Gallardo asked, clearly holding back tears.

"We intend to find out as soon as possible," Beckett replied. "But I need to ask you, do you know anyone who would've wanted to hurt your daughter?"

"No, everybody loved Laura. She was such a sweet girl. Played sports... did well in school. I can't imagine who would've done this..."

Mrs. Gallardo began to cry, and her husband wrapped his arm around her.

"They're gonna find out, honey. Whoever did this is gonna pay."


	3. Chapter 3

"Alright Castle, right now would be a great time for one of your crazy writer theories."

"I've got nothing," he replied. "This girl had no enemies."

"Well seeing as there's a bullet in her head, I'd say she had one."

The sound of a phone broke their silence.

"Beckett."

Lani held up a small plastic bag.

"Bullet's a .45"

Beckett sighed.

"Okay..."

This would be the part of the case where they would get a warrant to search the suspect's home. In a perfect world, they would find a gun that shot the bullet in the victim's head and they would arrest him. But this was far from a perfect world. Someone had targeted an 18 year old girl, who was now lying lifeless on a cold slab of metal in the morgue and Kate Beckett, the brilliant detective didn't have a clue where to go from here.

"I've estimated time of death to be between 1 and 3 PM."

"Thanks Lani."

The door opened and Esposito stood there.

"Someone's here to see you Beckett."

As Beckett approached her desk, she saw two clearly bewildered people standing there waiting for her. The man stood tall at well over six feet and his wife who was nearly half his size, was trembling at his side.

"Hi, I'm Detective Kate Beckett. What can I do for you?"

The small woman looked up at her husband, her own silent signal telling him it was okay to speak now.

"My name is Kevin Demasi and this is my wife Renee. We live across the street from...Laura."

"Laura Gallardo?" Beckett asked. "Did you know her well?"

"We were neighbors. She'd play with our kids sometimes. Such a sweet girl. She'd wave to my wife and me every time we were outside. Always with a smile on her face, too."

"Well, Mr. and Mrs. Demasi, we're trying our best to find out what happened to her."

"The real reason we're here," Kevin began. "We just recently had a security system installed in our home. We have young kids and we, you know, want to make sure they're safe. There's a camera outside our house. These are the surveillance tapes from the last month. Maybe they can help you out."

Kevin looked at his wife, who still held the tapes in her hand.

"Kevin..." she said.

"Is there something you want to tell me, Mrs. Demasi?"

Renee Demasi was clearly nervous and Beckett wondered why. Was this finally the lead she had been hoping for?

"The neighborhood had been different lately. I never used to be worried about my kids."

"And now you are. So what is the reason for that?" Beckett asked.

"We just want them to be safe," Mr. Demasi said.

Beckett sighed and reached across her desk to grab something.

"Mr. and Mrs. Demasi, here is my card. Call me if you have any more information."

The couple nodded.

"And thank you for the tapes."

Kate Beckett sat in her chair and slide the first CD into her computer. She heard a voice behind her.

"They're hiding something."

"Castle, were you listening to us?"

"Of course I was listening," he replied. "Ooh, we don't feel safe...we installed cameras to protect our kids..." Castle said, imitating the couple who had stood before Beckett just moments before. "If you're that scared of something, you tell the cops what it is. They're lying."

"Then why would they give me these tapes?"

"To clear their names. It's perfect. They figure, get on the cops' good side and they'll never suspect me of gunning down my neighbor in her house."

Beckett shook her head.

"Let's just watch the tapes, okay?"

"I'll get the popcorn."

"Castle!"

"Fine...no popcorn."

"The first tape is from a month ago when they say the first installed the security system," Beckett said.

"What kind of surveillance tape is this? You can barely even see the Gallardo's house!"

"That's because the surveillance tape is for the Demasi's...it's all we've got to go on right now."

Castle's eyes widened as he watched the tape.

"Oooooh," he exclaimed. "Who's fancy car is that?"

"We're investigating a murder, Castle..not shopping for cars."

"Wait, but there's a lot of nice cars."

"So? They live in a nice neighborhood. People have money to buy nice cars. You're not the only one with cash, Castle."

"Stop the tape. What time is that?"

"6:00 PM"

"Okay, play it again.."

"What do you see, Castle?"

"Just play it."

"Stop stop stop," Castle said.

Beckett realized what he was on to.

"Same car..."

"An hour an a half later."

"Are there any other camera angles?" Castle asked. "We can't see who's getting in and out of the car."

"No," Beckett replied. "This is it."

"So every day, a nice car picks someone up..." Castle began.

Beckett finished for him, "and drops them off one to two hours later."

"What does that tell you?" Castle asked.

"Looks like someone's got a job after all..."


End file.
